PODCAST · business
The Supportive Podcast
by Help Scout
Brought to you by Help Scout's Mat Patterson, The Supportive is a show for the customer-centric leaders of today and tomorrow. Tune in for tons of customer experience insights, practical tips, expert advice, and a bit of fun. (Also dad jokes).
Episodes
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Javier Silverio expected more complaints
Should you trust a chatbot when it sometimes makes mistakes? Javier Silverio has spent eight years in the Help Scout support queue, and now builds the team's internal AI tools. He read Mat Patterson's Supportive Weekly newsletter on AI and trust, and they get into what it means to hand your data…
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Dave Berner is Almost Unemployable
Dave Berner is a software engineer who, as a two-time founder considers himself "almost unemployable". Dave chats with Mat about careers in an AI-disrupted world. Dave chats with Mat about using AI as a sounding board, keeping people in the loop, and how he thinks about career planning when so…
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Nicole Crayne isn't here to fix your plumbing
Nicole Crayne, self-proclaimed "Chaos Wrangler" at Saffire, spent 12 years between support roles wrangling the chaos and the curiosity of kids as a stay-at-home parent. Now back in the corporate world, Nicole chats with Mat about what it takes to build curiosity into a team - trust, slack time…
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Support Lessons from Lyft, Square, and Google, with Beth Trame
Beth Trame has built support organizations from scratch multiple times, including at Lyft and Square, both businesses that dealt with steep volume increases and diverse customer bases. In this episode, Beth shares her experiences as we discuss customer feedback, criticism, and how support teams...
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You already have a support hiring rubric with Tom Walker
Tom joined Help Scout's support team in 2026, but he's been using Help Scout for a decade. He chats to Mat about his role in improving Zapier's support team diversity, what actually changed to hit their goals, why an interview process that never changes isn't neutral, and how improving diversity...
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Love It or List It for support tools with Chrissy Chavez
Thinking about switching help desks? Help Scout support pro Chrissy Chavez tells Mat why the urge to burn it all down and start fresh is so strong — and why an audit should always come first. Chrissy is a senior technical support specialist based in Oahu, Hawaii. She joins Mat to react to his...
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Speak to a human with Pavel Malyshev
Pavel drove AI customer support adoption as head of support...and then he got laid off. Mat chats with Pavel about his 13 years in B2B SaaS customer experience about the way execs are thinking about support today. Plus: why customers still want a human to confirm an answer, even when the AI got…
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Relevance before brevity in support with Leslie O'Flahavan
Leslie O'Flahavan has spent 30 years teaching people to write well at work — including plenty of customer service teams. Leslie and Mat discuss what it takes to write concisely in support, and how to develop your team's concise writing skills. Listen out for Leslie's simple 10% word-count game…
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700 classes and 0 perfect takes with Alison Groves
After 700+ live Help Scout classes, Alison Groves has figured out what makes customer education work — mistakes. Well, not exactly, but that's part of it. In this episode of The Supportive, Mat talks to Help Scout's Customer Education Lead, Alison, about what she's learned, how to get started…
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Kristi Thompson creates her own job
What if making your work visible wasn't about promoting yourself — but about telling the stories of your customers? Help Scout's Kristi Thompson spent nine years on the customer support team. She wasn't angling for a promotion or trying to build a personal brand. She just noticed a gap —...
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5 Themes from Season 2
Season 2 of The Supportive brought together founders from seven very different businesses — software, hardware, beer, mattresses, and more — all with a reputation for putting customers first. In this wrap-up episode, Mat draws out the five themes that ran through every conversation: being your…
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Is David Sparks too kind to be a lawyer?
Mat sits down with David Sparks — lawyer turned full-time creator — as he shares how 28 years in the courtroom shaped his approach to serving his technology audience. From playing imaginary clown music at raging opposing counsel, to personally answering emails from 93-year-old customers, David...
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NapLab tells you what mattress sellers will not
NapLab — Our First Customers on The Supportive Mat Patterson talks with Derek Hales, founder of mattress review site NapLab, about building a customer-centric business in an industry that works hard to keep consumers in the dark. Derek shares how a frustrating mattress shopping experience led him...
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Young Henrys — Our First Customers
Mat sits down with Oscar McMahon, co-founder of Sydney brewery, Young Henrys, as he shares how community, values, and a ‘challenger mindset’ have helped build one of the city's most loved independent companies. From the Inner West music scene to their “Serve the People” ethos, Oscar shares how...
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YNAB — Our First Customers
Todd Curtis, CEO of YNAB, shares how customer support became the foundation for sustainable growth. Learn why they embedded support in product teams and used it as a training ground for company-wide leadership. Here's the original YNAB Support Ethics document (long since replaced with expanded...
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Wistia — Our First Customers
Chris Savage, co-founder and CEO of Wistia, shares how staying in the support inbox for ten years, walking away from a potential major deal with HBO as customer #4, and choosing patience over growth helped their team build a video marketing platform where every product decision starts with...
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ZSA — Our First Customers
Erez Zuckerman, CEO and co-founder of ZSA Technology Labs, shares how a focus on craftsmanship, honest communication internally and externally and deep support has helped his small keyboard company punch well above its weight.
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Help Scout — Our First Customers
What does it take to earn the trust and loyalty of over 12,000 customers, build a team that cares like you do, and hold onto your values for over a decade? In the first episode of season 2, go behind the scenes with the three founders of Help Scout – Nick Francis, Denny Swindle, and Jared…
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Supportive Shorts — Reframing AI Chatbots
Mat answers Ita's newsletter-follow-up question: How can we frame AI chatbots as self-service tools, not worse-than-human support? Find the original newsletter here: https://email.helpscout.com/harm-joy and visit https://helpscout.com/blog/blog/reframing-as-chatbots/ for further links. Thanks Ita...
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Supportive Shorts — Season 1 is a wrap!
Season 1 of the podcast comes to an end, and Mat explores the recurring themes in classic clip-show style. Listen for a sneak peek of season 2!
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Episode 10 — Inside Buzzsprout support with Priscilla Brooke
Priscilla Brooke leads a team of support experts to help podcasters run, distribute, and grow their shows. In this episode she talks about her journey into support, and her approach to service at Buzzsprout.
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Episode 9 — On Community
Elevate CX founder Sarah Hatter chats with Mat (again!). This time, she shares her community building journey from idea to impact, revealing how in-person connections, shared wisdom, and a true sense of belonging have shaped Elevate CX into the community it is today. For the full show notes,...
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Episode 8 — Origins of Support
Sarah Hatter — support veteran, community legend, and founder of ElevateCX — joins Mat to talk about the early days of SaaS support, and the human support of the future.
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Episode 7 — Getting Started in Support
Mat and a bunch of support experts share actionable tips, encouragement, and helpful advice for people new to support, those considering a support career, and even jaded veterans. For show notes, further reading, and links to our contributors, see...
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Supportive Shorts - Change for Santa
In the final Supportive Podcast of the year, Santa's dealing with change, just like the rest of us, and Mat has some thoughts and thanks as we consider 2025.
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Episode 6 — Support Teams of 2028
A stranger delivers a USB-C stick from the future, and Mat discovers it contains a recording of a corporate onboarding for new support staff in November of 2028. What does it all mean?
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Patto Presents - Epochal Growth - Customer Centricity Through Journey Mapping
Mat's away on sabbatical, so this month we're sharing an episode of Epochal Growth, hosted by Sarah Caminiti and featuring Ben McCormack. Huge thanks to Sarah for sharing her interview with us. To hear more from Sarah on Epochal Growth, visit https://www.epochaloperations.com/epochal-growth ___…
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Supportive Shorts — My First Customer Service Job
Mat describes his first customer service experience working as a paper boy. What was yours? Email [email protected] to let us know.
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Episode 5 - Escape the Queue
Mat chats with Elyse Mankin, experienced support leader and former headband girl to talk about her experiences moving from frontline support into a leadership role. They discuss the challenges of making time to get out of the queue, Elyse's strategies for planning her time, delegation, and focus,...
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Episode 4 - Greatest Mistakes in Customer Service History
In this episode, Mat shares stories and lessons from six examples of customer service fails throughout history — from poor quality trade goods in ancient Mesopotamia to spectacularly bad motel service in present-day Australia.
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Supportive Shorts - Time is Money
The Biden/Harris White House recently announced their "Time is Money" governmentwide crackdown on customer unfriendly practices. What's it all about, and will it make any difference to real world customer experience for Americans...Mat Patterson takes a look. Here's the White House statement:...
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Episode 3 - Secrets of A Product Manager
Ben Henderson — product manager, former DJ, and boot Tetris expert — chats with Mat about his role and how customer support leaders can most effectively make their case for product changes and fixes. Plus, an Aussie slang challenge! For show notes, relevant links, further reading, and a full...
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Supportive Shorts - We (May) Need Another Hero
Evidence that Australia loves Tina Turner, and how new technology may prove Tina wrong - in that support teams may actually need another hero.
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Episode 2: Self-Service is the Future of Online Support
Self-service technology ancient and modern, a German monk, and Shawna explains Gross Margin in this episode of The Supportive Podcast. For show notes, transcript and further reading: https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S1E2/ Mat makes the claim that the future of online support...
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Supportive Shorts - The AI-First Bandwagon
In this in-between non-episode, Mat talks about why Help Scout is not an AI-first company.
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Episode 1: AI and the Future of Support Teams
AI and the future of support teams, 3 truly terrible predictions, several action items for support leaders, and Shawna explains the Rule of 40. https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S1E1/ 3 terrible predictions from history: Mail delivery by rocket Automation will make a second…
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Welcome to The Supportive!
Check out the trailer for the upcoming Supportive Podcast from Help Scout.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Brought to you by Help Scout's Mat Patterson, The Supportive is a show for the customer-centric leaders of today and tomorrow. Tune in for tons of customer experience insights, practical tips, expert advice, and a bit of fun. (Also dad jokes).
HOSTED BY
Help Scout
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Supportive Podcast have?
The Supportive Podcast currently has 37 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Supportive Podcast about?
Brought to you by Help Scout's Mat Patterson, The Supportive is a show for the customer-centric leaders of today and tomorrow. Tune in for tons of customer experience insights, practical tips, expert advice, and a bit of fun. (Also dad jokes).
How often does The Supportive Podcast release new episodes?
The Supportive Podcast has 37 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Supportive Podcast?
You can listen to The Supportive Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Supportive Podcast?
The Supportive Podcast is created and hosted by Help Scout.
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